


In the Shadows

by TsingaDark



Series: Spooky Month [8]
Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: Canon Universe, Dan Howell-centric, Gen, Horror, Minor Dan Howell/Phil Lester
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-03
Updated: 2018-10-03
Packaged: 2019-07-24 17:02:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,971
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16179371
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TsingaDark/pseuds/TsingaDark
Summary: He turned around onto his other side, hoping that maybe this time it might actually help, but after another few unsuccessful minutes in which he desperately tried to relax he opened his eyes again. Was there even a point anymore in trying to sleep? Maybe he should just get up and watch a show or browse the internet. There would surely be some interesting posts on tumblr or reddit he could lose himself in.With that thought in mind Dan reached for the switch of his bedside lamp, expecting to bump into the soft fur of the teddy bear’s body, but instead, his hand grasped at nothing.





	In the Shadows

**Author's Note:**

> I'm back to posting phanfics (for Spooky Month only). I realised I had some unfinished phanfics and I didn't want them to rot away in my google docs, so I thought I'd work on them for spooky month. there should be a new phanfic every 4 days (no promises though lol)
> 
> have fun reading this, i guess

Dan pressed the home button on his iPhone, the display lighting up and showing him it was 4:39 in the morning. He sighed, rubbing at his tired eyes.

Since Phil had decided to go to bed pretty early that day, they’d opted to sleep in different beds that night. Dan’d been feeling restless for days now, finding it increasingly difficult to fall asleep. It wasn’t even that he was having down days or that he was simply plagued by a never-ending stream of thoughts, like he usually was when he couldn’t sleep. This time, it was without apparent reason and it drove him up the freaking walls. All he wanted was one night of good and long sleep. Was that too much to ask for?

He turned around onto his other side, hoping that maybe this time it might actually help, but after another few unsuccessful minutes in which he desperately tried to relax he opened his eyes again. Was there even a point anymore in trying to sleep? Maybe he should just get up and watch a show or browse the internet. There would surely be some interesting posts on tumblr or reddit he could lose himself in.

With that thought in mind Dan reached for the switch of his bedside lamp, expecting to bump into the soft fur of the teddy bear’s body, but instead, his hand grasped at nothing.

Confused, he pulled his hand back. What the fuck? He tried to look at his nightstand but it was too dark in his room to see anything. He couldn’t even make out any vague forms, so he tried reaching for his lamp again.

There was nothing there, his hand suspended in the relatively cool air of his bedroom, searching for something that used to be in that exact position.

As quickly as he could, Dan pulled his hand back and shuffled further under the duvet. Where the fuck was his lamp, and nightstand for that matter? Had he simply confused the sides of his bed? But that didn’t make sense – he had a nightstand on each side.

_ Fuck _ .

He had to be dreaming, right? He’d obviously fallen asleep earlier, without noticing, and was having a nightmare. There was no other explanation for this.

His heart started beating faster and he could begin to see various shapes in the darkness, forming horrible monsters and terrible creatures that were all waiting to attack.

In a panic, he pulled the covers up over his head, his breathing fast and loud in the enclosed space. He couldn’t hear anything else but himself, the car noises from the main street in front of the apartment building shut out. It was like he wasn’t even in his room anymore.

Despite the absolute stillness of the room rendering him immobile, he knew this had to be a dream. There was no way all the sounds from outside – the loudness of night-time London – could be blocked out just by his blanket. Still, his heart wouldn’t calm down and with shaky breath, he slowly groped around for his phone which had been next to him just a minute ago. After a few seconds filled with fear, he could finally feel the cold metal of its case underneath his fingertips. He immediately brought the phone up to his face and pressed the home button, the bright display lighting up.

3:00 am.

Dan froze, staring at the time in disbelief.

It couldn’t be. It had been twenty to five just a minute or two ago, there was no way for it to be 3 am again. Either his phone was broken – which was entirely possible considering how often he’d dropped it – or this was actually a dream, a very realistic one.

With trembling fingers, he switched off the phone and then on again. As soon as the display lit up, Dan dropped the phone with a small yelp, the device falling onto the bed next to him, the display facing him.

On an almost completely black background was the dimly visible shape of a distorted body grinning up at him.

As fast as he could, Dan pressed the standby button, the display going dark. His heart was racing in his chest, like he’d just ran up a flight of stairs without stopping to breathe.

This couldn’t be real. He  _ knew _ it wasn’t real. And still, his body made him feel like it was, his hands trembling and his limbs heavy, confining him to the bed. Minutes went by with Dan trapped underneath his duvet, the air getting warm and stuffy. He couldn’t hear anything apart from his harsh breathing, no weird noises but also not the familiar traffic noises from outside.

He tried to reason with himself that this was just a dream. Illusion, not reality. Surely, if he closed his eyes and just laid here quietly, he would fall asleep inside the dream and when he awoke, everything would be as it had been. He’d be back in the real world, freed from this cocoon of pressing silence.

Just as he was slowly starting to relax, Dan suddenly felt a draught of air on his right ankle. It had barely been there, just a light breeze of air, but he froze anyway. His breath got stuck in his throat as the breeze came back, his leg feeling colder and colder with each passing second. It took him a moment to realise the duvet was being pushed up his leg, softly brushing over his skin. What normally felt calming and familiar now sparked panic deep inside of him. He couldn’t move, couldn’t even think, his limbs trapped to the bed, his thoughts swirling inside his mind.

All of a sudden, fingertips touched his ankle. Lightly and gingerly, before they wrapped around his leg and pulled.

Dan reacted instinctively. He reached for his phone and aimed for the hand grabbing his ankle, the device slipping through his fingers with the force of his aim. It banged against the bedframe and fell down, the display lighting up.

Dan’s gaze rapidly swept through the room, illuminated by the harsh light of his phone’s display. His breath was still coming fast, on the edge of a panic attack, but whatever had touched him seemed to be gone now. He was alone in the room.

It had to have been a dream. Maybe he hadn’t realised he’d fallen asleep and only woke when he’d knocked his phone against the bed. Because there was no one in the room apart from him, no one who could’ve touched him, and he was certain that what he’d felt had not been a phantom touch or simply the caress of a breeze. No, the closing of fingers around his ankle had felt too real for that.

With trembling hands, he picked up his phone from the floor. He pulled his hand back as fast as he could. Despite being old enough to not be scared by the darkness under his bed, he was still spooked by what had happened and honestly, who knew what kind of monsters lived underneath his bed.

Thankfully, the display of his phone hadn’t cracked, as iPhones were prone to do quickly. Instead, it simply showed him the time, the real time, 4.39 am.

After switching on the bedside light, now in its proper place once again, he risked getting out of bed and peeking under it. He knew he wouldn’t be able to calm down unless he did so, paranoia having made its home in his mind. There was nothing there, however. Except for a pair of socks that he had been looking for for ages and a High School Musical DVD.

He breathed a sigh of relief. Still, he turned on the big light and crawled back under the covers of his bed. His t-shirt was soaking wet from sweat but the fear of his dream still sat so deep inside of him that he didn’t even think of changing out of it.

Since he’d laid his laptop on the other bedside table – he was very happy he hadn’t left it in the living room because he definitely wouldn’t have made his way there now – he fetched it and combed through the depths of tumblr. The habit of this everyday activity slowly let him relax and he decided to text Phil to tell him about what had happened. He didn’t go into much detail since he wasn’t ready to relive the whole thing, but soon enough after he’d sent the text, he heard the familiar vibrating sound on the other side of the wall.

When Dan glanced at the clock of his laptop, it showed 5.39 am. Despite the late hour – or early for some people – he wasn’t tired at all. Quite the contrary, he was still on edge. He contemplated if maybe a hot tea or a warm glass of milk with a dash of honey would help him calm down more. He hated the thought of going to the kitchen but since it was getting closer and closer to the morning and with that the city’s daily awakening, he thought he could brave the outside world. Outside world here meaning everything beyond the confines of his room.

His legs felt wobbly when he finally stood up, but he managed to get to the door without stumbling. Apparently, the shock from his nightmare still sat deep inside of him, clinging onto him.

With a bit of trepidation, he opened the door and pressed the light switch next to the white wooden door frame. He’d done this so often and without thinking about it, that habit almost made him step forward, but the light never came on. Not even when Dan tried again, pressing onto the switch with more force, as if that was what he’d been missing the first time. Still, nothing happened.

What was going on?

The electricity was clearly working since his own room was brightly lit. And yet, the corridor remained dark, apart from a strip of light from his room. As fast as he could and with slightly trembling fingers, Dan opened the torch app on his phone, the bright light immediately illuminating the unfurnished corridor. He hated that the overhead light had chosen this exact moment to give up on him, almost as if the house had seen Dan’s dream and decided to torture him some more.

Maybe he should just turn around and bury himself in the comfort and warmth of his bed and force himself to fall asleep. He didn’t need a warm drink that badly anyway.

But no. He knew he wouldn’t fall asleep anytime soon should he just go back and lie down now. And anyway, he was armed with his phone as a torchlight, he didn’t need to be afraid. Not of the dark anyway. There was enough light and if that failed him, he could always just scream so that Phil would wake up and keep him company. Everything was  _ fine _ .

He stepped into the corridor, the old floor creaking under his weight. The strangely familiar sound relaxed him and he deeply exhaled before continuing. He’d only made it a few steps into the corridor when suddenly, the light of his phone turned itself off. With a loud swear, Dan pressed the home button right underneath the dark display, trying to turn it on again, but nothing happened.

It was only when he looked up from his phone that he noted that the light from his room that had illuminated the corridor behind him was gone as well. Instead, there was weirdly red light swirling against the walls of the corridor, reminding him of emergency lighting in horror games. The sight of it made the blood freeze in his veins, once again rendering him immobile. It was as if the air around him was standing still and he didn’t dare breathe.

Maybe he was still trapped inside his nightmare. Maybe it hadn’t ended when he’d dropped his phone. Surely that was the only possible explanation for what was happening. After all, there was no source the red light was coming from and he was sure that they didn’t even own any red lamps that could cause it in the first place.

Before he could even consciously decide to do so, Dan made a hesitant step backwards. He instinctively knew he needed to go back to the one place in this house where he felt the safest. Surely everything would be alright if he could just slip back under his comfy, monochrome duvet.

As he continued stepping backwards, he could hear his heart pounding in his ears. He was sure that if he didn’t reach his room fast, he was going to have a heart attack. Either that or he was just going to pass out.

He quickly got to the door and reached for the door frame, his hand moving around it towards the light switch, while he was watching the corridor. Once his fingers slid over the smooth surface of the switch, he pressed it, expecting his room to light up, but nothing happened. Desperately, he hit it again, hard. The room stayed dark, shadows engulfing him.

This couldn’t be possible. There was no way that the light had just stopped working. Maybe it was temporary or it was just the overhead light that was broken. Maybe the other ones still worked.

With his heart pounding hard inside his chest, he turned around quickly, his back to the corridor, and stepped into his room. He strode to the lamp on his bedside table but just like the overhead light it didn’t turn on. Neither did any of the other lamps in his room.

He got more and more distressed as he walked through his room, bumping into the bed frame several times with his shin. Normally, if this happened to him, he would hold his leg for a few minutes while swearing loudly, but now he didn’t even feel the pain. All he could think about was finding a light source to chase away the darkness and lingering red fog in the corridor.

Right as his back was turned towards the door, a loud bang resonated behind him. Dan yelled and dropped his phone. It made a dull thud as it fell onto the carpeted floor.

His heart was beating wildly, the pounding of it the only thing he could hear in the ensuing silence. There was no sound to indicate that whatever had happened behind him had been caused by anything moving. Unless it was also standing as still as Dan was right now.

Slowly, with shaking hands and trembling legs, he turned around. He’d never been religious and didn’t believe in God nor any other deity, but in that moment, he prayed that the sound had been created by something that had fallen onto the ground through the laws of physics, or that Phil had stormed out of his room to keep him safe, banging the door against the wall in the process. But even as he thought that, he knew it wouldn’t be true.

What he saw when he’d fully turned around let his blood freeze in his veins.

Resting on the corridor in front of his room was the lowered staircase leading to the attic. The attic that they usually never entered because they only stored some old moving boxes there and Dan didn’t go anywhere near an attic if he couldn’t help it.

He stayed rooted to the spot in front of his bed, his gaze never straying from the old wooden staircase. Now, he was almost certain that he was trapped in a dream. How else could the stairs have come undone? It had never happened before and all the times they’d opened the attic, it had even taken a few tries to get the stairs down because they got stuck often.

He almost wanted to laugh about the atrocity of the situation, the dream. Why couldn’t he have dreamt about elves and unicorns?  _ Anything _ other than this.

Abruptly, the noise of scuffling resonated through the otherwise silent apartment. It sounded like someone was walking around on the attic, not taking their feet properly off the ground.

Dan was distantly aware that he was sweating, his pulse going faster and faster. He couldn’t move, his feet frozen to the ground, his limbs feeling paralysed. Even if he had been able to run, he wouldn’t have known where to. There was nowhere to hide, nowhere to go. All possible ways lead past the staircase.

He was caught in a never-ending nightmare that was getting worse and worse.

Suddenly, the steps stopped. In the following silence, Dan’s shaky breath sounded too loud, too revealing to be overheard by anyone. He tried to hold his breath but he physically couldn’t, his body betraying him. He pressed his shaking hands to his mouth.

Maybe nothing would happen if he was silent enough. Maybe he was imagining all of this. Maybe this was really a dream and he would wake up any minute. Maybe, whatever was up there would go away. Maybe– 

Before he could end that thought, something appeared at the opening of the attic. Dan’s eyes focused on a horribly distorted and bloodied face when the creature’s arms slowly slid down and pressed its hands to the second to last step. It was facing the strip of wall between his and Phil’s bedrooms before its head slowly started to turn to him. Its eyes finally locked onto Dan’s, blood-red and inhuman, as its mouth fell open, a blood-curdling scream coming out.

Dan felt his body collapse, his mind spinning as the floor was getting nearer. The last thing he saw before everything turned to black was the horrifying smile of the predatory creature.

**Author's Note:**

> fun fact: this was originally the prologue of the first phanfic I ever wrote. It was about Dan waking up in different video game universes and having to live through his worst fears. I wrote about 14k before I gave up because it was in German and I realised no one would ever read it bc it was gen. But to not let it go to waste completely, I translated the prologue and (heavily) edited it 
> 
> [tumblr](https://tsingadark.tumblr.com/)   
>  [writing blog](https://tsingadarkswriting.tumblr.com/)   
>  [twitter](https://twitter.com/tsingadark)


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